intercourfe with us than all the reft, fitting down with us in fight of his countrymen. They ufed tobacco, which they fmoaked in fmall wooden pipes in form of a trumpet, and procured from little gardens where they had planted it. They chiefly hunt deer, cibulos, fea-wolves, and otters, nor did we obferve that they purfued any others. The only birds we met with on this part of the coaft were daws, hawks, very finall paroquets, ducks, and gulls; there were alfo fome parrots with red feet, bills, and breafts, like lories both in their heads and flight. The fifh on that coaft are chiefly fardines, perjerey, and cod; of which they only bring home as much as will fatisfy the wants of the day. We tried to find if they had ever seen other strangers, or fhips, than our own, but though we took great pains to inform ourselves on this head, we never could perfectly comprehend what they faid; upon the whole we conceived that we were the only foreigners who had ever vifited that part of the coaft. We likewife endeavoured to know from them whether they had any mines or precious ftones; but in this we were likewife difappointed. What we faw of the country leaves us no doubt of its fertility, and that it is capable of producing all the plants of Europe. In moft of the gullies of the hills there are rills of clear and cool water, the fides of which are covered with herbs (as in the meadows of Europe) of both agree able verdure and smell. Amongst thefe were Caftilian roses, smallage, lilies, plantain, thistles, camomile, and many others. We likewife found ftrawberries, rafbberies, blackberries, fweet onions, and potatoes, all of which grew in confiderable abundance, and particularly near the rills. Amongst other plants we obferved one which much refembled parsley (though not in its fmell), which the Indians bruifed and ate, after mixing it with onions. The hills were covered with very large, high and ftrait pines, amongft which I obferved fome of 120 feet high, and 4 in diameter towards the bottom. All these pines are proper for mafts and fhip-building. The outline of the port is reprefented in Chart the 6th, which was drawn by D. Bruno Heceta, D.Juan Fr. de la Bodega, and myfelf. Though the port is there reprefented as open, yet it is to be understood that the harbour is well fheltered from the S.W. W. and N.W. as alfo from the N. N.E. and E. *. [This difcovery was made by the fchooner on the 9th of June.} In the W. part there is a hill 50 fathoms high, joining to the continent on the N. fide, where there is another rifing of 20, both of which afford protection not only from the winds, but the attack of an enemy. At the entrance of the port is a fmall ifland of confiderable height, without a fingle plant upon it; and on the fides of the coast are high rocks, which are very convenient for difembarking; goods Thefe charts, which amount to nine, have never been tranfmitted to Eng land. alfo may be shipped fo near the hill, that a ladder may be ufed from the land to the veffel; and near the fand are many fmall rocks, which fecure the hip at anchor from the S. E. and S.W. We compleated our watering very early from the number of rills which emptied themfelves into the harbour; we were likewife as foon fupplied with wood. We paid great attention to the tides, and found them to be as regular as in Europe. We made repeated obfervations with regard to the latitude of this harbour, and found it was exactly 41 degrees and 7 minutes N. whilft we fuppofed the longitude to be 19 degrees and 4 minutes W. of S. Blas. We had thus thoroughly inveftigated every thing which relates to this harbour, except the course of a river which came from the S.W. and which appeared whilft we were at the top of the hill. We took therefore the boat on the 18th, and found that the mouth was wider than is neceflary for the difcharge of the water, which is loft in the fands on each fide, fo that we could not even enter it except at full tide. However we left our boat, and proceeded a league into the country, whilft the river continued of the fame width, viz. 20 feet, and about five deep. On the banks of this river were larger timber trees than we had before feen, and we conceived that in land-floods the whole plain (which was more than a quarter of a league broad) must be frequently covered with water, as there were many places where it continued to flagnate. We gave this river the name of mode of lowering or raifing its ftock, in order to withdraw the capital, that it might be diftributed and circulated; with the order that bank obferved in its accounts and in its offices; and even with its expenditures and its form of administration. By dint of reflecting upon the information he had acquired, and of combining fo many different ideas, he formed a fyftem which was admirable for its order, and the concatenation of the various operations which constituted it; a fyftem founded at least as much upon the knowledge of the human heart, as upon the science of numbers; but from which good faith, equity, and humanity, were totally banished, to make way for perfidy, injuftice, violence, and cruelty. And indeed the author of it was himself an unprincipled wretch, bound by no ties of morality or religion. Having flain or murdered a man, he was oblig ed to fly from Great Britain; he brought away with him another man's wife, with whom he lived many years as if fhe had been his own. His avidity was infatiable, and it was to gratify this paffion, that all his extenfive combinations were made to concur. In that exhausted state to which the war had reduced all the European powers, he forefaw that they would neceffarily endeavour to re establish their finances, and he conceived greater hopes of fucceeding than ever, by the allurement of his fyftem, which was calculated to feduce any power that would not fcruple to prefer the fpedieft method of exonerating jtfelf, to that which was most honeft. The object of his plan, therefore, was neither trade nor the facility of levying taxes without diminishing them, nor the retrenchment of expences, nor the cultivation of the foil, nor the confumption of provifions, nor even the circulation of the fpecie. He had built up his system with a view that a fovereign fhould pay his debts, not only without encroaching upon his profufion or his luxury, but also by attracting to himself all the gold and filver of his fubjects; and fuch was to be the illufion, that the subjects fhould give it up voluntarily; nay more, fhould be eager to bring it in, fhould infift upon its being received, fhould confider it as a favour to be preferred; and that when they were rouzed from this dream, if they fhould find themfelves bereft of their property, they fhould not be able to lay the blame on any thing but their own avidity. A project of a moft alarming nature to the human mind, and which every other man, except this daring genius, would have rejected as a chimera, if it had fuggefted itself to him! This fyftem confifted of a bank, the real capital of which was to be the revenues of the state, and the accruing capital, fome unknown kind of commerce. This benefit being calculated to keep pace with the imagination in its increase, was to be a wonderful fpur to thofe gamefters who wished to partake of it, by means of shares, which were to be made out fucceffively, in proportion to the eagerness of the parties. Thefe fhares, in fact, which were at first few in number, could not fail of rifing to an enormous price on account of their scarcity, and and the rapidity of the circulation; this would not only facilitate, but even neceffitate the making of other shares, and at an advanced premium. This new paper, bringing the old into difcredit, would furnifh an excellent mode of diftributing it; because the old paper would be received at par, but always with a certain proportion of money. In order to engage perfons to get rid of this old paper, the value of it was to be made uncertain by frequent fluctuations; thus the poffeffors of it would be apprehenfive that it might become of no value in their hands; when it fhould be raised, one would readily convert it into shares, to fecure the advantage; and when it fhould be lowered, one would fear that it fhould become lower ftill. The bank, on the contrary, were to make all their payments in bills, whofe value being invariable, would keep up the confidence in them, and would render them more negotiable, and preferable to fpecie. The difcredit brought upon money would lower the intereft of it, and the prince was to avail himfelf of this reduction to make his loans, and thus difcharge part of his debts without any difburfement; for the individuals, not knowing what to do with it, would bring it back to him. If the individuals wifhed to lay out their money in more folid acquifitions, lands, provifions, and merchandize would increafe, and confequently fo would the receipt of the taxes and the customs. This phantom of fortune 'dazzling the eyes of every one, the feveral claffes of citizens, in their eagerness for partaking of it, would intereft themselves in the keeping up of the bank fo much the more; as a number of individuals either more fortunate or more dex. terous, necellarily making enor mous profits, would excite the general cupidity, nearly in the fame manner as the highest prize in a lottery keeps up the hopes of the adventurers, of whom the greater part must nevertheless be lofers. Now, what fort of competition would there not be in this inftance, where every one would be certain of winning, by increafing the dividends à propos? Let this illufion be kept up only for a few years, and the fovereign will have paid off all his debts, and will have drawn into his coffers, the greatest part of the fpecie of his own, and even of other kingdoms. Such were the axioms and the corollaries of Law's fyftem: an infernal theory, deduced certainly from facts, and which he had never ventured to confider coolly in all its horror: let us fay more, a theory that was not even to be conceived; but the regent and he, hurried away, in fpite of themfelves by the rapid motion of this political machine, were obliged to yield to its impulfe, till it broke to pieces by its own efforts. However this may be, the author of this plan, whether more or lefs digefted. with respect to its confequences, perceiving that it could not be carried into execution in any ftate except where the fovereign enjoyed abfolute authority, confidered France as the kingdom moft fit for his defign. Befides, he knew the people; that they they were fond of novelty, that they adopted it without confideration, and gave themfelves up to it with a kind of frenzy. It has been afferted, that he first propofed his fyftem to Lewis XIV. who, notwithstanding his being in want of fuch a fcheme, upon the bare expofition of it, rejected it with a kind of abhorrence. The author was not difconcerted, but produced it again to the Duke of Orleans. That prince, more determined, more enterpriz ing, and certainly lefs fcrupulous, confidered it as very ufeful to his views; he was moreover preffed by circumftances; he wifhed to avail himself of the fhort time he had to govern, to remedy the evils of the ftate, which required a neceffary crifis. He therefore adopted this fyftem; he would not allow himself to think of the violent convulfion into which he was going to throw the ftate, and flattered himfelf, that his genius would be able to put a ftop to its effects, whenever they fhould become too fatal. Nevertheless, as he was not the abfolute mafter, and that he was obliged to act with a great deal of caution, he adopted it only flowly, and by degrees. to give this bank a credit, which was to be anfwerable to the more extenfive undertakings it was to embrace, a decree of council was ilued, which ordered all those who had the management of the royal treafure, to receive and even to difcharge the bills without difcount. By this decree, full of artifice, under the appearance of fimplicity, the bank was made the repofitory of all the revenues of the king. This was the first step towards that ideal fortune it was to make: it immediately fixed the intereft at feven and a half per cent. Some time after, a trading company was created, under the title of the Western or Miffiffipi Company. Its object was the planting and culture of the French colo nies of North America. The king gave to this company all the lands of Louifiana, and permitted French, as well as foreigners, to be concerned in it, by taking fhares of it, part of the value of which might be furnished in bills of ftate, which loft from fifty to fixty per cent upon the fpot. How was it poffible to refift fuch a bait, more especially as the country was reprefented as a Peru, more fertile in gold than that of the Spaniards! Even the parlia At first he contented himself with permitting Law to establishment was taken in, and made no a bank, in order to accuftom the fcruple of regiftering. They yet people by degrees to fuch a title, faw nothing in this, but what and to fuch an establishment. It might be ufeful to the state. was prefented under an appearance of public utility, and it would really have been attended with very great advantages, if it had been confined to the functions fpecified in the edict which fet it on foot. The year following, in order In 1718 the bank made further advances. It was announced under the title of Bank Royal, by a declaration of his majefty, which fignified, that the king had reim-. burfed in money the capitals of thofe perfons who had fhares in the bank, which they had only |